Protecting, Looking After Democracy after ‘Reformasi’

It was not easy to fight for the reforms that began in 1978-1998. Therefore, students need to maintain and care for democracy so that Indonesia is not controlled again by an authoritarian and repressive regime as before.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The efforts to protect and looking after Indonesia’s democracy after 25 years of reformasi (the reform movement) must not stop. Students are encouraged to be bold and speak up, and have the same enthusiasm as during the reform movement. At that time, students were willing to make sacrifices to find solutions to various national problems.

"I ask all students, all democracy activists, let’s collaborate. Let's unite to take care of our democracy," Pius Lustrilanang, who was secretary-general of the People's Democratic Alliance (Aldera) in 1993-1998, said during a discussion commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Reform movement titled "Reformasi Memanggil" (reform calls), which was held by the Kompas daily in collaboration with the Aldera Foundation in Jakarta on Friday (19/5/2023).

Also present at the event as speakers were economic observer Faisal Basri and Kompas vice general chairman of Budiman Tanuredjo. At the event, which was also attended by students from a number of universities, Indonesian World Records Museum (Muri) representative Jusuf Ngadri presented an award to Pius. The award was for Aldera's book, Portrait of the Youth Political Movement 1993-1999, which Pius had initiated and which became a bestseller within six months (15 Oct. 2022 to 15 April 2023), selling a total of 160,540 copies.

Also read:

> Evaluation urged of Reform Era Institutions

> Reputation of “Children” of Reform Fading Away

Pius called for collaboration to look after democracy, because a number of threats to democracy had emerged 25 years after the 1998 Reform movement. This could be seen, for example, from the idea of extending the presidential term to three terms and postponing next year’s elections.

Pius also underlined that democracy was often “stolen” by populist politicians who were elected. They hijacked democracy slowly by “tricking” the Constitution in order to stay in power longer. He said he did not want Indonesia to have another president who stayed in power too long.

Democracy must also be maintained in this country because it took a long struggle to implement the system. The struggle for reform and democracy began in 1978 and lasted until the authoritarian New Order regime finally collapsed in 1998. Pius pointed out that this tireless struggle was driven by students. “That is again [due to] the role of students. Many people had to be sacrificed, detained, kidnapped, killed to uphold the democracy we enjoy today," he said.

They hijacked democracy slowly by “tricking” the Constitution in order to stay in power longer.

Pius acknowledged that he had visited several universities with Aldera's book to remind their students of student struggles in the past.

Budiman said that while some of the demands of the 1998 Reform movement had been achieved, others were still neglected. Because of this, the “Reform Calling” movement emerged to continue to push for the unfinished reform agenda.

The demands that emerged during the 1998 Reform movement were to enforce the rule of law; eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN); bring former President Suharto and his cronies to court; amend the Constitution to limit the term of the president and vice president; remove the dual function of the Indonesian Armed Forces’ (ABRI); as well as grant regional autonomy as wide as possible.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Deputy General Leader of Kompas Daily Budiman Tanuredjo, Political & Economic Observer Faisal Basri, and Audrey Chandra (moderator, left to right) were resource persons in a discussion entitled "Reformation Calls; 25 Years of Reform with Aldera" in Jakarta, Friday (19/8/ 2023). This discussion was held by Kompas Daily together with the Aldera Foundation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Reformation.

Public welfare

Apart from the political, legal and democratic aspects, the 1998 Reform movement also brought hope for improving people's welfare. This hope could not be separated from the economic crisis marked by a sharp fall in the rupiah exchange rate at the end of the New Order era. At that time, many banks collapsed.

Efforts to recover from the crisis were first carried out by the government of the third Indonesian president, BJ Habibie, which was continued by the fourth president, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid. During this period, democratization also improved, one of which was to formally recognize Confucianism as a religion.

The impacts of the crisis began to fade during the regime of the fifth president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, by paying debts earlier. This was possible because the economy had become more stable during the Habibie and Gus Dur administrations. The economy moved towards a good condition during the era of the sixth president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"Unfortunately, this golden momentum is gone. Commodity prices are up. We have an abundance of foreign currency, but more than one quadrillion rupiah were burned because of fuel subsidies. So, [this was] not for the welfare of the people,” said Faisal.

Also read:

> Decaying Institutions

Furthermore, economic growth actually declined at the beginning of the term of the seventh president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

In the New Order era, banks disbursed loans of up to 65 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), whereas currently it was only at 40 percent. Tax revenues also continued to decline. Ironically, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), as Faisal called it, could not audit the Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Taxation until the case of suspicious transactions at the ministry totaling Rp 349 trillion had surfaced.

The rupiah was still not appreciating now, and Faisal predicted that Indonesia would find it difficult to catch up with Thailand and Malaysia in terms of public welfare. "I must [point out that] within the next 23 years, we could be overtaken by Vietnam and the Philippines, so in 23 years we might only be higher than Timor Leste, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar," he said.

According to World Bank data, he continued, life expectancy in Indonesia had fallen from 70 years in 2019 to 67 years in 2021. This was only slightly higher than Myanmar and in fact, Indonesia had lost to Timor Leste.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi